Page 11 - Green Builder Media Sustainability Symposium 2018

Drawdown is that point in time when greenhouse gases peak and begin to

decline on a year-to-year basis. It is the most important goal for humanity to

undertake. It is not a daydream because Drawdown is based on research that
maps, measures, and models solutions that are already in place.

resources, and benefit health and well-being of all people. analyzes renewable energy and energy eˆciency, and includes
Drawdown tells a story of possibility, grounded in data and many other solutions including reducing black carbon with
analysis. By cataloging what we already know how to do — and clean cookstoves, adopting low-carbon diets, eliminating
are already doing — we paint a picture of human brilliance, food waste, and dematerialization. Drawdown is the work of
capability, and compassion. The skill and determination be- a prominent and growing coalition of geologists, engineers,
ing expressed by humanity is a fact-based counter argument agronomists, researchers, fellows, writers, climatologists,
to the narrative that climate change is too vast, too hard, or biologists, botanists, economists, financial analysts, architects,
too complex to tackle. In actuality there are many reasons to companies, agencies, NGOs, activists, and other experts who
believe. Indeed, we analyze 100 of them. draft, model, fact check, review, and validate all text, inputs,
The list of solutions may challenge conventional wisdom sources, and calculations. They include IPCC lead authors such
about how to address climate change. Our analysis shows that as Karen O’Brien and Dan Kammen, writers such as Michael
the marquee solutions — renewable energy, energy eˆciency, Pollan and Elizabeth Kolbert, activists such as Annie Leonard
and forest preservation — are indeed critical. However draw- and Mike Brune, and over 200 others.
down cannot be achieved with those solutions alone. It requires The work is extensive, complex, and exacting, but its
a systematic approach that is broad and includes approaches outcome is beautifully simple: a dashboard that anyone can
often overlooked, such as educating girls in the developing access, understand, and engage with, whose underlying data,
world and twenty-one distinct land use practices that pull car- sources, and algorithms are completely transparent. It is the
bon out of the atmosphere, creating vital negative emissions. essential tool human beings need in order to address climate
Because root causes and cures for climate change are seen disruption broadly and effectively, not only because it points the
as immensely complex, solving global warming has been ced- way forward but because it paints a picture of what is feasible,
ed largely to experts. Drawdown posits a different approach. feeding the most critical element of addressing climate change:
A wide variety of actors can contribute significantly: students, our collective imagination, creativity, and conviction. At its
teachers, researchers, philanthropists, investors, entrepre- core, Drawdown is a clear and detailed case of what is possible.
neurs, business people, farmers, policymakers, engaged citi- We are counting what counts. GB
zens, and more.
The work of Drawdown is all the more critical following At its core, Drawdown is a
COP21. The consummation of the Paris talks was extraordi-
nary. Remarkably, 195 countries agreed that climate change clear and detailed case of
poses a serious threat to humankind and offered voluntary what is possible. We are
commitments to achieve stabilization at 1.5C — an unprec-
edented achievement. Missing from the proceedings, however, counting what counts.
is a detailed and exacting description of how to achieve the
goals of the agreement because no institution has assembled By collectively drawing down
a comprehensive framework of existing solutions that could
achieve drawdown. carbon, we lift up all of life.
The Drawdown coalition is that body. Thousands of person-
hours of reading, research, interviewing, and model calculus
underlie a rigorous accounting of what is possible. It thoroughly
www.greenbuildermedia.com/champions-of-change-2018 SUSTAINABILITY SYMPOSIUM 2018†11